Federal Liberals will support HST
Michael Ignatieff says federal Liberals will support legislation to implement a harmonized sales tax in Ontario and British Columbia, despite previously bashing it as a job-killing “Harper sales tax.”
Liberal, Tory, same old story.
Tags: British Columbia, flip flop, Harper Sales Tax, HST, Liberal Party of Canada, Liberals, Michael Ignatieff, Ontario
Harper’s Conservatives Silence Desent Again.
Once again, a government official speaks his opinion and gets canned because the Conservatives don’t agree with him. This time it’s the chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.
OTTAWA – The watchdog over the RCMP won’t be invited back for another term, prompting critics to accuse the government of muzzling him.
The government says it’s not renewing the appointment of Paul Kennedy, chairman of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.
Kennedy, who assumed the job four years ago, has harshly criticized the RCMP’s use of Tasers and recently sparred with the government over his budget.
In a statement Friday, the government thanked Kennedy for his service, but gave no reason for not extending his term.
Don Davies, the NDP public safety critic, said Kennedy’s departure is the latest example of the Conservative government’s inability to withstand negative comments.
“I think it’s wrong and I think it’s unfortunate,” he said.
“It smacks of political partisanship. I don’t think they like to be criticized and I think they like to put their own people in.”
Davies noted others have been marginalized for saying things the government doesn’t like, citing parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, author of unflattering reports about federal spending, diplomat Richard Colvin, who raised alarms over the treatment of Afghan detainees, and Military Police Complaints Commission chair Peter Tinsley, who is conducting a probe of the detainee file.
Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland was travelling and unavailable for an interview. Through his assistant, he expressed disappointment – though not surprise – with the government’s decision.
Holland said the government has consistently done everything in its power to stifle independent oversight.
Kennedy is preparing to release a report on RCMP actions in the high-profile case of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died at the Vancouver airport in October 2007 after being Tasered by the Mounties.
A Public Safety official called Kennedy last week to tell him he won’t be renewed.
Kennedy’s term expires at the end of December and a replacement has yet to be named.
He declined comment Friday.
Kennedy, a veteran public servant, is a trained lawyer who spent 25 years with the federal Justice Department before joining the then-solicitor general’s portfolio, now Public Safety, where he retired in May 2005 as a senior assistant deputy minister.
The government has been working on a long-awaited modernization of RCMP oversight. But it has outlined no timetable for making changes.
Kennedy has taken a keen interest in the process, arguing his office doesn’t have enough powers to properly oversee the RCMP.
Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan says he is waiting for the report of a federal commission into the 1985 Air India bombing before moving ahead.
But critics have pointed out that a 2006 commission of inquiry report into the Maher Arar affair has already produced a detailed blueprint for keeping an eye on security and intelligence agencies like the RCMP.
Holland said Friday the government continues to find excuses for not implementing the important changes.
Earlier this year it appeared the government wouldn’t replenish millions in special funding that Kennedy’s office received to carry out in-depth studies.
The complaints commission said the cutback would endanger research about how police deal with mentally ill suspects, and how forces often end up investigating themselves when officers get into trouble.
In the end, the commission got $3.1 million of the $3.7 million it hoped to receive for the research.
This from the party that, as opposition, slammed the Liberals for their partisanship.
